past life regression

Past life regression (PLR) is the alleged journeying into one's past lives while
hypnotized. While it is true that many patients recall past lives, it is highly
probable
that their memories are false
memories. The memories are from experiences in this life,
pure products of the imagination, intentional or unintentional suggestions
from the hypnotist, or confabulations.

Some New Age therapists do PLR therapy
under the guise of personal growth; others under the guise of healing. As a tool for New
Age explorers, there may be little harm in encouraging people to remember what are
probably false memories about their living in earlier centuries or for encouraging them to
go forward in time and glimpse into the future. But as a method of healing, it must be
apparent even to the most superficial of therapists that there are great dangers in
encouraging patients to create delusions. Some false memories may be harmless, but others
can be devastating. They can increase a person's suffering, as well as destroy loving
relationships with family members. The care with which hypnosis should be used seems
obvious.

Some therapists think hypnosis opens a window to the
unconscious mind where memories of past lives are stored. How memories of past lives get
into the unconscious mind of a person is not known, but advocates loosely adhere to a
doctrine of reincarnation, even though such a doctrine does
not require a belief in the unconscious mind as a reservoir of memories of past lives.

PLR therapists claim that past life regression is essential to
healing and helping their patients. Some
therapists claim that past life therapy can help even those who don't believe in past
lives. The practice is given undeserved credibility because of the
credentials of some of its leading advocates, e.g., Brian
L. Weiss, M.D., who is a graduate of Columbia University and Yale
Medical School and Chairman Emeritus of Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai
Medical Center in Miami. There are no medical internships in PLR therapy,
nor does being a medical doctor grant one special authority in metaphysics,
the occult or the supernatural.

reincarnation and PLR

Psychologist Robert Baker demonstrated that belief in reincarnation is the greatest
predictor of whether a subject would have a
past-life memory while under past life regression hypnotherapy. Furthermore, Baker
demonstrated that the subject's expectations significantly affect the past-life regressive
session. He divided a group of 60 students into three groups. He told the first group that
they were about to experience an exciting new therapy that could help them uncover their
past lives. Eighty-five per cent in this group were successful in "remembering"
a past life. He told the second group that they were to learn about a therapy which may or
may not work to engender past-life memories. In this group, the success rate was 60%. He
told the third group that the therapy was crazy and that normal people generally do not
experience a past life. Only 10% of this group had a past-life "memory."

There are at least two attractive features of past life regression. Since therapists
charge by the hour, the need to explore centuries instead of years will greatly extend
the length of time a patient will need to be "treated," thereby increasing the
cost of therapy. Secondly, the therapist and patient can usually speculate wildly without
much fear of being contradicted by the facts. However, this can backfire if anyone bothers
to investigate the matter, as in the case of Bridey Murphy,
the case that started this craze in 1952.

A special Health Ministry
committee heard complaints from patients who said that they had sustained
serious emotional damage because of reincarnationhypnosis sessions. The Health Ministry told
hypnotists in Israel that they are to refrain from helping clients explore
past lives.

One 23-year-old man being treated for depression
after a relationship soured, told that he might have experienced
an event in a past life which is now making it difficult for him
to let go of his partner, blamed his panic attacks and
respiratory problems on the treatment. He was led to feel he was
in a coffin.

The session turned south when the man became emotionally stuck
in an experience which made him feel as though he was enclosed
in a coffin. He began to gasp for breath. After the session the
man suffered repeated panic attacks and respiratory problems,
and he was referred for medical and psychiatric care. Dr. Alex
Aviv, from the Abarbanel Mental Health Center in Bat Yam, said:
"The patient suffered from a false
memory (of being in a coffin) which had been implanted into
him and needed correction." Aviv headed the advisory committee.

"This is a mystical practice
for people who believe in reincarnation. We've seen a number of
cases where practitioners tried to perform this on patients and
things went bad," Aviv said.

The ministry did not ban the
practice, however. Only authorized hypnosis therapists, whose
practice is recognized by the ministry, are banned.
Freelance past life regression hypnotists may continue to harm
people at will.

book review

Jon Danzig's review of Many Lives, Many Masters: The True Story of a Prominent Psychiatrist, His Young Patient, and the Past-Life Therapy That Changed Both Their Lives by Brian L. Weiss "Dr Weiss has conducted his research without scientific protocols or peer review, yet as a 'scientist,' Dr Weiss should have the skills and resources necessary to have conducted his 'investigation' properly and scientifically. The fact that he chose not to has, I believe, discredited his book as a work of fairy tale-like fiction. Rather than a conventional review, I will go through some of the claims made in the book, page by page, and show how it's full of nonsense."